Just read this interesting article on Outreach Magazine where the author talks about Christians dependency on the church. Interesting, here's a clip:

As a pastor, I want people to become Christ-followers. I want them to fall in love with God’s Word and experience the joy of gathering with other believers in both home groups and corporate worship, as well as the fulfillment of finding a place to serve in ministry.

But I face one big challenge. Every time Christians step inside a church, it can remove them from the place where they have the greatest impact for God’s Kingdom—the world. It’s sad, but I wonder if we’ve inadvertently designed our ministries to isolate Christians from the places where God really wants us to be. Are we truly engaged in his Great Commission if every extra moment of our lives is spent at church?

I hear the way Christians talk. They want more opportunities to gather for worship. They want more programs to meet other Christ-followers. They want more Bible studies to help them go deeper in God’s Word. There’s nothing inherently wrong with these desires—but what’s often missing is a desire to see people outside the church commit their lives to following Jesus. As Christians, we can become so focused on our own faith journey that we forget God’s command to go tell others the Good News.

1 Comments:

Thats very true. Not that I'm an authority on the matter, but I know a guy who was once hurt by a church. Now, he believes that Christ came to abolish the "temple" church system and that we all just brought it back up again. Falling under an mindset of taking a solution to a problem to the farthest extreme answer possible is a strange thing to see.I guess we all need a balance, but hearing God's opinion and balancing that with the opinions of the authorities God has placed over you can be challenging.